Spiral Impact
by Padmyth
Summary: It's three years after the fall of Teppelin, and Simon has shut everyone out. He hasn't talked to any of his friends in weeks, and he's made sure they can't find him. On the eve of Kamina's death's anniversary, something happens that will change Simon's world forever.
1. Pain and Suffering - Chapter 1

It was a new kind of numb.

It was as if Atlas himself had been relieved of his burden for a few small moments. It was a relieving rush, the kind you turned to when you had no others left to turn to. It didn't help in the morning, and it stung going down, but it sure as hell helped in the moment.

The moment was now, and what he needed was relief. Relief from the world that lauded him a hero, worshiped him as the savior of humanity, the killer of kings, the liberator of man.

But what he truly was, deep inside, was a scared and alone child.

He had nobody to turn to anymore. Everyone expected something profound, or something sage. He had simply done what he was told to do, by instinct or others. He wasn't a savior, he was an automaton. Simply a tool of war, able to topple cities because he was born with a power that not many had, at least not at his level.

To be revered wherever you went, everyone wanting a picture, or thanking you for your service. They don't truly know. They don't realize that he wasn't unlike like them. He too, was a person who didn't know what they were doing. Someone living only because they were alive. Yet, they had not seen what he had seen. While they lived hidden away from the horrors of war in their underground sanctuaries, sheltered away from the real world, he had seen death.

He had seen the true, ugly face of sentient 'spiral' beings.

Could he live like this any longer? Consumed by his own guilt, having to put on a facade that everything is okay, life is great, that he was enjoying the attention, for all of these people that want nothing more out of you than to say "I've met him!" or to have a photo opportunity.

It was disgusting. Before the war, he was a gross, smelly child, who worked all of his life in order to eat. Nobody liked him. They whispered about him behind his back, sharing their gossip and lies, smirking while feigning innocence when he would ask.

But there was the one.

The one who believed in him.

Who told him to believe in the you that believes in yourself. The man who took a broken boy and made him whole. And he couldn't even save him. The one time he was needed, and he failed. To be hailed as a great man, the one who had saved humanity, yet couldn't even save his brother? It was disgusting. He didn't deserve any of the praise.

He deserved people shoving him, telling him what a pathetic sack of shit he was, gossiping about him behind his back. But they didn't. History would remember him fondly, generations upon generations would learn about his 'marvelous deeds for humanity'. All while his brother, the man worthy of the praise he received, would be forgotten by history. Everyone who died, forgotten.

Why couldn't it have been him who died that day? Why did it have to be the driving force behind their rebellion? He was forced to grow up too soon, and he hated life for it. Perhaps the bottle could truly drown his sorrows.

He took a swig of the brown colored liquid. Rum. It tasted terrible, like liquid flames going down his throat, but it lowered his inhibitions and made him feel somewhat better. So he took another hearty swig of it.

It burned. He drank, and he drank, and he drank until the bottle was out.

His vision was blurred, and he felt like he was on fire, but he was truly amazed that someone his age could have finished the entire bottle by themselves. He got up and staggered to his bathroom. He fell over a few times, but picked himself up, and opened the door. He stripped down bare, and started turning the knobs until they couldn't be turned anymore. It was fine, he wanted the burn.

If he couldn't drown his sorrows, he would drown himself.

That's how he rationalized it in his drunken stupor. It scaled his skin, but he didn't mind. He didn't care anymore. This was as close as he could get to relief. He felt the tears streaming out of his eyes, but it didn't matter. Nobody could see him crying in the shower. Nobody could see him at all.

Within minutes, his brain finally registered that his skin was being seared by the boiling water coming out of the shower head. He turned it to cold, let the water cool him, and swung the shower door open. His vision was really blurry now. He felt like he was going to black out.

He started walking towards his room, but it seemed as if there was now four doors and they were all shaking.

He stumbled, but moved forward, tears streaming down his face now. How pathetic was he? He couldn't even get to his bedroom correctly, he couldn't save his brother, he couldn't do anything.

He let his towel fall to the floor, grabbed a pair of underwear, and then flopped on the bed. He smothered his face in his pillow, and sobbed. He sobbed, hiccuped, and sobbed, until he passed out in the darkness of his desolate home.

Being alone was all he knew, and it was all he would ever know.


	2. Splitting Headache - Chapter 2

The man arose from his slumber with a massive throbbing pain in his head. He sat up in his bed and clutched his head.

"Ugh... I went overboard last night, didn't I?" The man said to no one in particular. He felt around on the night stand that was next to his bed, sliding his hand all around until he found a rectangular object. He pressed the small protruded button near the side of the device, and it roared to life, saying "S-Phone on! Hello, Simon." in a rather melodious voice.

Simon quickly turned it off while he winced in pain from the light the device gave off. '_In retrospect, that wasn't a good idea.'_ he thought, while gingerly placing the device back onto the nightstand. He was no stranger to hangovers, so he knew what he had to go.

He pulled his covers off of his body and slid out of bed, grasping the wall, just to make sure he wouldn't fall. He felt his way to the light control and turned the brightness up a shade, akin to that of a sunset. He then opened his bedroom door, and then walked towards the kitchen.

He grabbed a glass and filled it with water from the sink, and then opened his cabinets looking for his "medicine". '_Medicine is a funny way to put it,' _ he thought _'when in reality, it's just for drunkards and worthless piles of crap like me.'_ He located the glass bottle, opened the cap, and poured out two of the blue colored tablets. Throwing them into his mouth and then drinking a glass of water seemed to be apart of his daily routine now; he had been doing this for a while now.

Simon got up and went towards his pantry, looking for something to eat, because he hadn't had anything but shitty bar food in the past two days. He managed to scrounge up the ingredients to make pancakes, but soon realized that it was usually Nia who would cook for him if he wanted something hot. '_Shit,'_ he thought, _'I don't want to see anyone right now, but I can't starve...'_

Simon decided on going out incognito, as he had been doing for the past few weeks. Better to go outside unnoticed than stay inside and be bothered. He got up from the table, felt the cooling effects of his "medicine" finally kick in, and went to his bedroom to get clothes.

As he walked by his bed and towards his bathroom, which held his closet, he noticed his S-Phone blinking red. He grabbed it and powered it on to see what the problem was. '**102 unread messages. 35 voice-mails. 68 missed calls.**' the device displayed. Simon sighed. '_Can't they just fucking leaving me alone for a goddamn while? Not like I haven't already done enough, they need me to be their conversation piece at parties too?_'

Simon threw the device on the floor. He didn't care what they wanted, nor did he care if it was important. He wanted to be alone. He walked into his bathroom and looked in the mirror. He was growing a beard. He hadn't shaved in two weeks, not since he 'dropped off the face of the earth' as some would put it. He moved his hands down the sides of his jaw and rubbed the beard, before deciding that he would leave it. Shaving would cut time out of his day anyways.

He stripped out of his tank top and pajama bottoms and grabbed a fresh pair of jeans and a slightly soiled shirt. He didn't want to look nice in the part of town he was going to, because that attracted attention. The last thing he needed was for some thug or beastman to try and mug him.

He looked in the mirror again to see if he looked the type- a drunkard who didn't have money. From the lot he had seen where he was going, he fit the part perfectly. He grabbed a ratty pair of sneakers, hastily slipped his feet into them, and then walked out of his bathroom.

He noticed that his phone was blinking red again. '_Are you kidding me?' _he thought, _'I haven't replied to any of their attempts at contact, and they're still trying?'_ They were persistant, Simon would give them that, but they wouldn't catch him, or even find him. He wouldn't spend the day here. When he picked up the phone, the prompt read: "**Look, I remember what tomorrow is too. We're worried about you Simon. We're all your friends, and we do genuinely care about you. Why don't we meet somewhere, just the two of us, and we can talk? - Yoko**".

_'I won't be falling for that,'_ Simon thought, and then chuckled. _'Yoko is predictable. Knowing her, she'd have Kittan and Rossiu there too, just so she could somehow get me back to work.'_

Simon shoved the device in his right pant pocket, and started to make his way towards the door. He heard a light rapt upon his metallic front door. "Oi, Simon, you there? We have a problem. Uh... a big, nasty one, yeah, that's it. We need Gurren Lagann to help."

Simon recognized the voice instantly as Kittan's, and then heard another voice berating him.

"You idiot, he's not that dumb! Ugh... do I have to do everything myself? Thankfully he probably didn't even hear you."

Yoko. Definitely Yoko.

"SIMON!" Yoko cried out. "WE'VE GOT A MASSIVE PROBLEM DOWNTOWN! THE GRAPEARLS CAN'T FIGHT THIS THING! WE REALLY NEED YOU AND GURREN-LAGANN'S HELP!"

Simon was conflicted. He could take the chance that there was actually a problem downtown that needed his attention, or it could be a poorly put together ruse by Yoko, and Kittan to kidnap him. The latter made way more sense. Rossiu had set up a special hotline to his house if anything major ever happened, and only Rossiu and Simon knew about it. Why would Rossiu send Yoko and Kittan, when he could just use the hotline?

Wondering if he should take pity on them, or just leave, he looked through the peep-hole that was installed in his door, and gazed upon Kittan and Yoko.

"Oh, wait!" Yoko proclaimed. "Nia gave me his house key earlier today, so we could check up on him!"

"So we just wasted twenty minutes coming up with a lie when we could've walked in and nabbed him ourselves? You're really something else, Yoko." Kittan replied, looking at Yoko like she was a total idiot.

"What's that supposed to mean, Kittan?" Yoko yelled, while fumbling through her brown rucksack.

"It means he could be awake and listening to us right now, and he could be making a break for it because you were stupid enough not to remember the key!" Kittan shouted back and Yoko. They were face to face, shouting at each other for a few seconds until they both stopped and looked straight at the peephole.

Simon jumped back. _'Shit,'_ he thought, _'I've got to get out of here! I can't believe Nia would betray me like that! After I told her NOT to give that key to anyone!'_

Sprinting to the backdoor, as soon as he got outside, he could hear Kittan attempting to jump his fence. Kittan was grunting and looking down at his feet to make sure they weren't falling, so that gave Simon some time to start climbing the back fence. As soon as Kittan managed to get over his fence, he saw Simon maneuvering his body over the fence, and falling to the other side. "HEY YOKO!" he yelled, "HE'S GETTING AWAY OVER HIS BACK FENCE!"

Simon was in a full on sprint from the time his body hit the ground. He had made his way across the street when he looked behind him and saw Kittan and Yoko lagging behind.

"HELP! HELP! THAT MAN STOLE MY PURSE!" Yoko was shouting while pointing at Simon.

_'Damnit Yoko! Now you've got to get the police involved? What part of my "No communication" did you not get?'_ Simon thought, panting.

He was now running from two street policemen, Kittan, and Yoko. "Don't worry ma'am!" one of the policemen said, "We'll make sure this scumbag rots in a cell for evading arrest and theft!"

Since when was evading arrest if you did nothing wrong a crime? Isn't Yoko the one committing a crime? Lying to a policeman, and wasting his time in a pursuit of a innocent man?

Simon saw a break for it, but it would require breaking the law. He glanced over his shoulder to make sure he had enough distance between them to actually do it. They seemed to be losing their speed, all except Kittan, who was still in remarkably good shape. Simon looked at a fire-escape on the side of a building. He could, theoretically, climb the ladder, pull up the ladder, then escape by the rooftops. Dangerous, and stupid, but he was desperate.

He didn't want to see these people, and he definitely didn't want to talk to them. Being locked up in a cell, interrogated by some policemen while he made up some bullshit story about why he was running from them in the first place, and then having them take him to wherever they intended? It was too much.

He grabbed the ladder and started climbing. "Hey!" Kittan shouted. "Get back here, Simon!"

He slipped and almost fell, but Simon was determined to not be caught by these idiots. He saw that Kittan too, was now climbing the ladder. _'Shit,'_ he thought, _'Now I can't get away by rooftop, because Kittan is equally dumb enough to actually try roof jumping._

As Simon made his way up the flights of emergency stairs, Kittan started shouting at him.

"You've got nowhere else to run, Simon! We just want to help! Come on, we haven't seen you in almost two months, you've gone completely off the radar! We know what today is too! We know how you feel! What are we supposed to do?"

"What are you supposed to do? You're asking me what you're supposed to do?" Simon shouted back, his voice dripping with rage. "YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO LEAVE ME THE FUCK ALONE, THAT'S WHAT YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO DO!"

Kittan stopped climbing the flight of stairs, his mouth agape. This gave Simon the time he needed to get onto the roof. Simon ran from side to side, realizing how stupid he had been. There was nowhere to go, this was it. He was going to be arrested, and then forced to talk to the very people he had been avoiding for weeks now. Kittan was now on the roof.

"C'mon... Simon... we're just worried about you." He said in a low voice, as if he was somewhat apologetic for following Simon and pestering him.

Simon turned around and started running. He would rather die than face them. Not now. Not ever. He was responsible for Aniki's death, no matter how many times they told him he wasn't. They said it was just a phase, and he'd get over it. It wasn't that simple, he couldn't just forget about Aniki's death, and his role in it, especially when it was just a day away from being three years since he died! Not like this.

Simon ran until he arrived at the edge of the building. As if it was pure instinct, he vaulted across the divide between the two buildings, and as if the gods themselves played a part in helping him land, he grabbed onto the edge of the building's roof.

"SIMON!" both Yoko and Kittan screamed out in sync. Simon grasped the side of the building with a strong grip and begun to pull himself up. "SIMON, YOU IDIOT! YOU ALMOST KILLED YOURSELF! JUST TO GET AWAY FROM HELP? HOW SELFISH ARE YOU?" Yoko shouted out, sounding like she was holding back tears.

"Yoko... he doesn't want to be bothered. Let's just... let him go, for now." Kittan said, putting his hand on her right shoulder.

Simon had fully pulled himself up, and laid down on the rooftop of the building to catch his breath._'That was, by far, the dumbest thing you've ever done. How selfish are you? Would Aniki have wanted you to die running away from people who care about you? No. You're being an asshole about it, and you know it.' _Simon thought.

He sighed, and sat up. He looked at the building he was previously on. No sign of Yoko and Kittan, or the policemen. _'I guess they have given up.'_ He thought.

His stomach rumbled. Simon groaned and started to make his way into the building. About 15 minutes later, after he navigated the halls and found the stairs, he was out, and needed to find a place to eat.

He started to wander around, until he found a place called 'Jill's Diner'. He decided it was as good as any other place to get coffee and eggs, so he walked in, and sat down.

Two tables over, and with their backs to him, sat the two people he had spent the past hour running from and avoiding. How fortuitous!

Yoko's face was buried in her hands, and she was visibly crying at this point. Simon felt a tinge of guilt for being so selfish, and was shocked to see her being different than her usually stoic self. He couldn't help but eavesdrop on their conversation.

"It's just... he's turning everyone out, y'know? I mean... Nia told me he hasn't called her in weeks, Rossiu says he hasn't shown up to work in about a month, and he hasn't talked to any of his friends in weeks either! What are we supposed to do, Kittan? I-I know... I know he's always been this way around... but it's never been this bad! I mean, the memorial is in a week, for god sake! He's been grieving over his death for too long! I thought that when he got better, he was better for good, y'know? But it's like he's going farther and farther into his shell..." Yoko kept rambling on and on, and Kittan would occasionally chime in with "I know, I understand, we love him too..." or a variant of the sort.

Simon had heard enough. He decided to get up and leave. He left money on the tables, and started to head towards the shady part of town. Now was as good a time as any to get drunk.

The bar was almost a cliche. It had lowly dimmed lights, red velvet bar-stools, and a mahogany counter, with a man rubbing a glass behind it. Simon snorted. _'Just like the movies.'_

Simon looked around, to make sure he wouldn't have the misfortune of running into another person he knew. That's just what he needed, to see another one and to hear their sob-story about how they hadn't seen him and they were worried, etc, etc. He'd heard it all at this point.

He approached the counter and sat down on one of the red velvet stools. The bartender glanced at him and quickly walked over. "Sir, I'm truly sorry, but due to a new... law, yes, that's it, law, we'll have to see your government mandated identification or you'll be asked to leave."

Simon looks up at the man and stares at him dead in the eyes, as if he wanted to freeze him with his vision. "Just who the hell do you think I am?" Simon replies in a harsh voice, clearly not phased at what the man has asked him.

A wave of realization dawned upon the Bartender, who quickly recovered his cool demeanor. He knew who Simon was. Everyone did. And he knew better than anyone to refuse him service. After all, he was a hero.

"Ah, yes... I'm sorry sir, my apologies. First round is on the house, I'm terribly sorry for the misunderstanding."

Simon stares at the man for a while, and then says "Vodka." and goes back to staring at the counter, as if something gravely important was written on it.

"Right away." the bartender replies, shuffling off to prepare his drink.

It was 11:13 in the night of the next day before the Taxi arrived at his house. Simon somehow managed to consume way over the legal limit, and way over what his body should allow, and had also managed to piss an entire day away. He briefly thought about how he should be dead, but chalked that out to the bartender watering down the drinks. "T-that... bastard..." Simon muttered. He'd give him a piece of his mind tomorrow. All he needed now was some sweet sleep. That'd be the relief he needed. He walked towards his bedroom, visions of Aniki's dead body flashing through his mind. "GODDAMMIT!" he shouted, "AFTER ALMOST THREE YEARS, WHY CAN'T YOU JUST LEAVE ME THE FUCK ALONE?"

Simon realized that Aniki wasn't there. He stomped towards his bed, and didn't bother to even take his clothes off. He flopped onto the bed and contemplated what like would be like if he and Kamina had never left Geha Village. '_Not like it matters,' _he thought. _'Nothing I can do would bring Kamina back. Not even all of this damn Spiral Power. Load of shit that's done me now.'_

Simon started feeling intensely ill. "Urgh..." he moaned out. He felt an intense splitting pain in his forehead, and he started screaming from the immense pain. His vision was blacking out. In the thin strip of vision he had, everything went pure green. "Wha..." he tried to say as he passed out from the horrible pain.


	3. Taking the Blame - Chapter 3

_Tick. Tick. Tick. Click._

Rossiu stopped pacing and looked up at the clock. 9:00. He grabbed his calender, and marked out the last spot. An entire month since Simon had come in. He had expected that he wouldn't come in today, hell, Rossiu knew he wouldn't, but he always figured the best way to forget your problems was through hardwork. Though Simon obviously didn't agree.

Rossiu know had to weight out his options. He figured he COULD call Yoko and Kittan about their progress on getting Simon, but since they hadn't contacted him at all yesterday, he figured they failed. Typical. Dumb, and worthless.

Rossiu sighed. The mere fact that a man older and stronger than Simon, and a girl who had an impeccable shot couldn't catch him was disheartening. Rossiu didn't know what was worse, the fact that Simon had successfully evaded contact for a month by staying in his house, going out and losing their hired "help" in seedy areas of the city, or the fact that he was probably hung over and still managed to get away from them.

Rossiu didn't want to get anyone else involved, because then he would be admitting that their administration couldn't catch a single man, even when he constantly came back to his own home. That'd be a field day for the media.

Pondering what he should do next, he caught himself pacing. He had made a bad habit out of it, waiting for Simon to come to the office. To be truthful, this was the longest time Simon had gone without work. Last year it had only been a week, and around the same time too. The year before that, one day. Rossiu didn't know why it was getting worse for Simon.

At first, he chalked it up for Simon looking for an excuse to dog out of work. But after hearing about the tales of a drunken Simon getting into bar fights with Beastmen twice his height and four times and strong, and actually seeing him come home drunk, Rossiu knew it was something worse.

Rossiu sat down at his desk, adjacent to Simon's, Kinon's and Dayakka's. They were the only four who ever came to work, at least consistently. Kittan and the rest, namely Aretenborough and Yoko simply just stopped coming in, and only made rare appearances, as if they were trying to give Rossiu an illusion that they still came and still worked hard.

They loved to party, and perhaps it was the celebrity status that they all had that was the worst. Yoko and Kittan had been showcased on those "celebrity gossip" shows quite a few times. Kittan liked to party hard, and so did Yoko. Almost every night he heard reports of them going out, Paparazzi following them, and fans screaming for autographs.

He found it rather ironic, that the two men who were inside Gurren Lagann and actually fought Lord Genome didn't care much for fame, and tried as hard as they could to give these pathetic parasites a good life, and the people who simply blew up a few Gunmen were the face of popular culture.

Rossiu also received attention from the media, but not in the same light. While Kittan was a eccentric playboy, Rossiu was a stiff, lifeless government official, at least in the eyes of the media. To be honest, he was fine with that.

He hated people taking his picture, he hated them knowing information on his personal life, and he resented that they followed him around constantly. They would yell at him and tell him stuff that they would want done, like "more schools!", "tighter regulations on hover-cars!", and they would follow him expectantly, as if harassing him would get anything done.

Kinon and Dayakka walked into the office. "Good morning!" both of them said, one after the other.

Rossiu sighed. "Is it really?" he asked. "Simon has been AWOL for a month now, we're getting close to his third year in office, and the two baffoons weren't able to even catch him."

"Figures," Dayakka snorted. "I told you, if you wanted it done, you should've had Kinon and I do it. We're not two celebrity hotheads, we're actually..." he looked over at Kinon, who didn't seem to care that he was insulting her brother. "Y'know, we're actually smart."

Kinon nodded her head in agreement. Rossiu knew perfectly well that they knew why they couldn't go out and try to catch him, and that was because less work would be done.

"I did hear something interesting about him last night, though." Kinon chimed in. Dayakka gave a look like he knew what she was talking about, but didn't particularly agree with it.

"Well, from what Kittan told us at the dinner table, they chased him out of his house, into the city, up a building, and he actually started jumping roofs just to get away from them. Supposedly, he brought Yoko to tears with the stuff he was yelling at them."

Dayakka rolled his eyes. "Look, Rossiu, do you seriously believe that crap? It's Kittan we're talking about. They probably didn't even see him in the first place, and he wanted an opportuinity to seem like some sort of action hero, going up buildings while chasing someone."

Rossiu had to agree, Kittan was known to exaggerate the truth.

"Well, I would expect it to be on the news, but once I got home, I only saw the regular portion. Was there anything in the paper this morning?" Rossiu asked.

"No, nothing at all. Just more stuff about the reviting lives of celebrities!" She responded sarcastically.

"Wonderful. Then it's not real, and Kittan's an idiot. Glad he doesn't come into work anymore, he'd just be fucking more things up." Rossiu replied.

Rossiu sat down at his desk and surveyed the room, as if he was expecting to see something different. Nothing.

He took off his coat and landed in his chair. This paperwork wasn't going to finish itself.

Rossiu started to chip away at the massive mountain of documents. It wasn't long before Kinon said "Rossiu?" and took him out of his zone.

"Yeah? What is it?" he asked, slightly annoyed that he couldn't even finish reading his first document.

"It's Nia, she sent me a message. She's going over to Simon's house. Should I tell her to leave him alone?"

Rossiu thought about this for a moment, and then replied. "She's old enough to decide these things for herself. How long since she's talked to him?"

"Well, I was talking to her a few days ago and she said the last time was about two weeks ago, but he didn't really talk, more like... grunted. So as long as we haven't seen him, she hasn't either, and they're dating, so it's kinda bad, Rossiu." Kinon said, slightly peeved.

Rossiu didn't much care for the logistics of relationships, and certainly didn't care for others, but it seemed he had to humor Kinon on this one.

"She'll be fine. Tell her she has class S clearance to talk to Simon. No-holds-barred. Go right ahead. If she gets hurt, I'll take the blame." Rossiu replied as he got back into the swing of working.

Kinon shook her head and silently prayed for Nia. _Hopefully she'll be fine, Simon couldn't possibly hurt her... could he?_

* * *

_Sorry for the short chapter! (Well, shorter than the second. I don't have Microsoft Word so I just write these in Wordpad, and unfortunately, I was an idiot and didn't save while writing this chapter. It was originally a bit longer, but it's the same story, essentially. I won't do these sorts of things often (where I talk at the end of chapters) since I find it annoying, but I just thought I should apologize for the short chapter. It's pretty frustrating writing a story and having it deleted because your crappy computer crashed._


	4. Watch - Chapter 4

His dreams were filled with that of Jeeha Village. Flashes of digging filled his mind, images of Aniki, the Chief, his first crush, Lagann, and his Spiral Core. He felt happy, in this made of reality of his. However, he had mastered the ability of his dreams long ago, and he was just showing himself what he wanted to see. He went back to the dark recesses of his mind, where he kept Aniki.

He kept his memories of him locked away, so he could view them when he pleased. It seemed odd, and it was akin to a child hiding his favorite toy from his friends, but it didn't bother him. He liked the fact that he knew Kamina best; no matter how selfish it was. But oddly enough... he couldn't get a clear image of him. It was as if... Aniki was now someone he didn't know, one he couldn't remember; a bit character.

This was troubling. He tried to prod and poke around in his memories, but even with his full effort, he couldn't even see his face. It was as if he had been taken out of everyone.

Even though this was just his dreamscape, a place for him to live life as he thought it should be, he should've been able to remember Aniki. He tried to remember happy memories, such as when they first combined into Gurren Lagann. Yet, there was nothing. He could feel his body tensing in rage, even as he slept. He was aware of his surroundings at all times, war had taught him that.

Well, that was a lie. To be honest, he slept like a drunkard on sleeping pills, but that was beside the point. He flew through his memories like they were papers blowing through the wind; and not a single one had Aniki's face, or body, or voice, in them.

He thought of his death. That HAD to be the one place he would show up.

Suddenly, it was as if he had stepped into a still frame of a movie.

Rain was falling, and Gurren's mouth was open. Yoko was crying. He was bent over on the ground with tears flowing down his wet cheeks. He slowly lifted his head, having second thoughts on if he should've done this. What he saw, was like a swift kick in the stomach.

Aniki was gone.

There was no slumped over body, slightly smiling in Gurren anymore. The pilot's seat was empty. Was this the effect of alcohol? Did it really kill that many braincells, to the point that they had somehow removed an entire man from his brain?

That had to be impossible, right?

He shot up, cold sweat flinging off the side of his face as he jerked into an upright position. He felt famished, nauseated, and depressed, all at the same time. He couldn't even remember the man that put him in a depression?

He checked his clock. 6:32. He decided to phone Nia, because maybe she would be able to offer some insight. She was weird like that, naive with things that should be common, and surprisingly wise when it came to things that affected nobody.

He grabbed his phone and dialed her number. After the fourth ring, she finally picked up.

"Hello~?" she asked in her usual sing-song voice.

"Uh..." Simon suddenly found himself at a loss for words. He had shut her out almost as long as everyone else he knew. They hadn't talked in almost 3 weeks, and he felt it might be a little rude for him to just act like nothing happened. However, it was Nia, and knowing, she might not have even cared.

"Hey, Nia. Eh... I don't really know what to-" Simon was suddenly caught off by Nia.

"Simon~! I'm coming right over in a few minutes, we can talk then~!"

"W-wait, Nia! Just because we're somewhat dating, doesn't mean you can come over when you please!" Simon caught himself raising his voice. He lowered it so he wouldn't upset Nia.

"L-look, I just..." he sighed. "Do you think it's possible to forget someone important from your life completely?"

Nia seemed to ponder the question, then replied, "Well~, you haven't forgotten me, so I don't think so!"

It was as if Simon could somehow see her beaming smile from the phone. It was a mixture of happiness and disgust that manifested within him from that image.

"Ugh, never mind... bye, Nia." He was putting down the phone and was ready to hang up until he heard Nia say "I'll be over in a few minutes~!"

He let out a loud groan. The last thing he needed was for someone to ruin his pity party. It was really bothering him though... he knew Aniki, but at the same time, he didn't know Aniki. He could remember everything he had done with him, but he couldn't remember him being there. It was like someone had cut him out of the magazine of his memories, and pasted him elsewhere.

He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and then slid out of bed. He walked to the bathroom, turned the faucet on, and started splashing water in his face to wake him up. He didn't have time to take a shower if Nia was going to be over in a few minutes. He put on a shirt and some pajama bottoms. As he started to search for a pair of slippers, he heard the sizzle of a pan on a stove top, and he smelt the warm aroma of freshly made pancakes.

_'...The hell?' _He thought. _'There's no way she got here that fast, is there? Unless... No, she couldn't have slept outside his house... though she did know what day it was...'_

Suddenly, he heard a voice that he hadn't heard in a long time call out. As if it was pulling every string in his heart at once, socking him in the gut, and taking his breath away, all from the simple sentence it had said.

"Oi! Simon! D'you want syrup on your pancakes?"

He felt joy. He felt rage. He felt a tinge of regret. Most of all, he felt sad... but why? This voice was one he couldn't seem to place. It was a voice you'd never forget, but he had managed to be the idiot that had.

It then registered in his brain that someone was in his house. Someone that knew his name, and was making pancakes for him...

He bolted over to his night stand, opened the drawer, and grabbed his gun. He slunk out of the room, and using the wall as cover, he braced himself for whatever was in his kitchen.

As if he was running on instinct, he shouted out something to the intruder. He then shouted it again, even louder.

"I HAVE A WEAPON! I KNOW HOW TO USE IT, AND I WILL USE IT. WE HAVE LAWS AGAINST COMING INTO OTHER PEOPLE'S HOMES NOW. I WILL GIVE YOU UNTIL THE COUNT OF 5 TO GET OUT!"

He listened to the man shuffle around in his kitchen. It sounded like he threw an apron on the tile floor, and like he was now stopping his cooking.

All the sudden, the man who was once in the kitchen was by Simon's side.

"Simon, what's up? And why are you using a gun? You're big enough to kick anyone's ass now!"

Simon shrieked, clearly being startled by the man. He hit his head on the wall, and fell down.

He sat upright and began rubbing his head. "Goddammit, that really fucking hurt!" he mumbled.

"I see your vocabulary has grown alongside your body, Simon!"

He looked up to the figure. It... it couldn't be. Standing in front of him was the man he forgot. A ghost of a man who had died three years prior. Aniki. His Aniki. Kamina. It was Kamina standing there. He felt woozy, and his vision faded to black.

He awoke cuddled up in a chair, with a blanket over him, and a pillow under his head. He was propped upright in a position that was highly uncomfortable, which meant that someone put him there. He checked the clock on the wall. 6:41.

That meant he wasn't out for long. He vaguely remembered the events that led up to his passing out, but the reason was fresh and crisp in his mind. He had hallucinated and saw Kamina right in front of him.

Maybe it was the medicine, or maybe he got served some sort of psychedelic beer, but he knew that Kamina wasn't there. But he still smelt pancakes.

"Nia...?" he called out, almost afraid to let it be known that he was now awake.

"Oi! Simon! Are you up?" the same voice from before called out again.

He froze. This had to be some sort of fucking joke. It had to be! Unless he had managed to enter a parallel universe where Kamina never died and they were roommates, but then that didn't explain Nia, since he wouldn't have met her if Kamina hadn't died!

He got up and rushed to the kitchen, and found himself speechless. There was Aniki. Standing there, making pancakes, like he had never died.

"You... how... what..?" Simon stuttered, not being able to find the right thing to say.

"I guess you are up!" Kamina smirked. "D'you want syrup on these?" He motioned his eyes towards the pancakes he was sliding onto a plate.

"H-h-how... are you... a-alive... you... y-you... can't be..." Simon asked, mouth agape.

Kamina looked puzzled.

"To be honest, I'm not quite sure either. Last thing I can remember is fighting that general in Gurren, and then I woke up laying beside you in a bed, in what I'm guessing is our house. Then I looked over to you, and saw that you grew up and you're almost as tall as me now, and you had a beard. So I figured I'd make breakfast." He laughed, then added, "By the way, that's not the best look for you."

Simon just stood there. His brain couldn't process the situation correctly.

He just walked over to the table where Kamina had placed the plate of pancakes, sat down, and grabbed a bottle of syrup, and started pouring. He grabbed his fork, and dug in.

Kamina sat down, and broke the silence with a question. "So, what happened in the few years that I've been dead?"

Simon jolted his face from staring at his pancakes to Kamina's face. He knew he had died?

"Y-you know that y-you d-died?" Simon sputtered out.

"That much was obvious, and you did ask how I was alive. I guess the heavens favored me and let me have another go at it." He shrugged. "So, what's new?"

Simon stood up from the table, and vomited all over it. He then ran to his bedroom's bathroom to go throw up again.

After a few seconds, Kamina walked up behind him. "You need anything?" he asked.

Simon tried to mutter something, but his body made sure he couldn't. He threw up all of his breakfast into the toilet.

"It's just... it's just... too much, for me. You've been dead for three years..." Simon rasped out.

"Ah. I see. Well, that's not too long, hope I haven't missed much!" Kamina chuckled.

Simon turned around and started to say something to Kamina, but then heard another voice. This time, it was one he could easily place.

"Simon~, I'm heeere~!" Nia's melodious voice filled his home. Shit. She couldn't meet Kamina, at least not like this.

"You've got to hide, and do it now!" He said to Kamina as he got up and rushed to meet his girlfriend.

"H-hey, Nia!" he stuttered.

She smiled at him, and then started to walk towards his bedroom door, for no reason at all.

"I heard you talking to someone, do we have another guest?" She asked, eyes filled with innocence.

"No, no, wait wait! Don't go in there-" too late.

What she was Kamina's body hidden under Simon's bed's covers.

Nia's face went from a shining smile to tears in under .5 seconds

"S-Simon..." she whispered, tears streaming down her face. Nia was naive, but she wasn't dumb. Simon knew exactly what this looked like, and he couldn't explain it with another lie.

Simon's brain wasn't working after the overload that he had just recieved from Kamina's "resurrection" of sorts, so all he could manage to say was "It's not what it looks like!"

Nia turned to him, tears streaming down her face.

"I see why you didn't talk to me for three weeks..." she sniffed her nose, rubbed her eyes, and then continued. "G-goodbye, Simon."

She turned and started calmly walking out. As soon as she got outside, she started bawling and running down the street. All Simon could do was watch.


	5. Blood and Soul Brothers - Chapter 5

Simon stared as a crying Nia ran down the street, turned, and was gone from his field of vision.

His brain couldn't fathom everything that had been thrown at him. He couldn't think, he couldn't feel, couldn't hear. His brain was thinking at a mile a minute, and he was subject to his unbearable guilt.

Yet he knew he had nothing to be guilty for, as he wasn't truly cheating on Nia. She just saw it that way. Though he knew that this was a long time coming. His selfishness combined with Nia's naivete was doomed from the beginning, the relationship was dead on arrival.

The fact that they had lasted this long was a testament to their stupidity.

He was bashing himself over nothing, at this point. He couldn't have risked anyone knowing about Kamina, not at least until he knew exactly what happened.

He couldn't help but feel guilty, though. The one person who had believed in him and put up with this melancholic bullshit believe that he had betrayed her trust, and rightfully so. There was no fixing this, and he knew it.

He stood there for what seemed like ages. He saw Aniki's hand motion in front of his face a few times, but he paid no attention to it.

Why did Nia's reaction bother him this badly? He had treated her like shit, and he had told himself he didn't actually care for her, and yet, seeing her leave in tears, was as if Aniki had died all over again. It wasn't at the magnitude, but it tore him apart seeing her like that.

Simon felt a hard shove on his back, and then the terrain against his cheek. The copper taste of blood brushed against his cheek. He hoisted himself up and looked back at his home, and saw Kamina expectantly looking at him.

"Well, you bring me back from the dead, and then you just choose to ignore me, eh? Some hospitable host you are." Kamina scoffed as he turned around and started to swagger away.

"HEY!" Simon yelled back, voice seething with unadulterated rage. "WHO THE FUCK DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?"

Kamina turned around and grinned.

"Well, Simon, let me tell you something, since you seem to have forgotten about your old Bro!"

Kamina struck a pose, and continued.

"He who is able to come back from the dead! Infinite knowledge and power corse through my veins, piercing my every being! That's who the hell I am, Simon!"

He waggled his eyebrows. "Come on, I made breakfast, lets eat!"

Kamina walked away from Simon. Simon got up and started rubbing the blood out of the spot on his cheek where he had faceplanted onto the ground.

Simon walked over to the kitchen table and sat down. Kamina walked over at sat down also, and the pair began to eat.

"Mind tellin' me who that was, or d'you have a secret life now?" Kamina smirked.

"It doesn't matter right now. What we need to know is why you're... well, alive, and how it happened. She's just someone I know who overreacts to everything. She'll get over it." Simon stated matter-of-factly.

Kamina shrugged. "Eh, I'm dead one minute, spirit in limbo with billions of other spirits, and the next, I'm laying next to you in a bed."

Kamina stuffed his mouth with pancakes and continued.

"I dfmmpht thfmmptk whfmm-" Kamina swallowed and then laughed.

"I don't think it really matters what got me here, or why I'm here, does it? We should be celebrating! Call up Team Dai-Gurren! I need a status report now that I'm back at the helm!"

Simon looked dumbstruck. _'Was it really possible to be this calm about coming back from the dead?'_ he wondered, _'Or was he really freaking out inside like I am?'_

"Aniki, uh, look... Myself, more than anybody really, wants to party and shout to the heavens that you're alive." Simon tried to channel any sort of manliness that he had in him.

"I'm the ruler of this nation now, and as such, I've got to make sure there is no gross abuse of any powers, breaking of the laws and sorts, uh..."

He was flopping, and Kamina knew it. With one eyebrow raised in question, Kamina motioned for him to stop.

"Ah, I get it, Simon! You've got an image to uphold, and you've become more of a man than I! You're trying to save my feelings, I get it."

Kamina faked as if he was genuinely hurt, but Simon knew this was one big game for him.

"Ugh... No, I mean, we need to figure out why and how this happened, just incase something is going... uh, wrong in the universe!" Simon replied.

"Ah, I see, you want me all for yourself for a couple of days, I see how it is!" Kamina laughed heartily.

"Alright Simon, whatever you want to do, we don't have to let anyone know about me for a day, is that fine with you? We've got some catching up to do, I guess."

Simon stared at Kamina for a while and then sighed. There was no use in fighting it forever, Kamina was too charismatic for his own good. Simon could call Rossiu and maybe see if there was anything on the subject.

"I'll be right back." Simon said as he started walking towards his room to grab his phone. He dialed Rossiu's number, and waited for a few moments until Rossiu picked up.

"Ah, Simon! I take it you're feeling... better, yes?" Rossiu asked.

"Uh, yeah, not so much. It'll be one more day." Simon said, then nervously wondered if he should continue. Rossiu was very astute in his observations, so he might think something of the question.

He gave a little cough and continued talking with Rossiu.

"So, uh... have there ever been any reports of reincarnation? I mean, in all of history. Is that possible... y'know, to bring someone back to life?"

Rossiu waited for a second, and then replied harshly.

"No. There isn't. Don't even think about such a thing. It's not possible Simon. I hope to see you at the office tomorrow. Don't disappoint us, please." and then the click of the phone hanging up.

Simon thought Rossiu's response, but quickly ruled it to Rossiu just having a stick up his ass, like usual. He walked back into his living room and look at Kamina.

"Look, we're going to have to work this out. Before we can hang out, lets make a map or something of everything you can remember, okay?"

Kamina looked over and groaned. "I've been alive for a few hours, and you want to be my therapist? Not cool, Simon."

Simon knew he would be pissed if he was in the same situation, and he realized this.

He walked over to his Video-Vision which was mounted on the wall and pulled out a Black Box. Immediately, two controllers shot out from it, as if they materialized out of thin air.

_'Welcome to the Nyntensoft Blackcube Gaming Device.'_

The screen lit up with the boot logo, and flashed a prompt that read "Welcome, Simon!"

Kamina looked amazed at the tiny device. Simon grabbed a controller and tossed it to Kamina, who narrowly caught it.

"Well then, fight my Space Fighter Warrior Ninja? You'll have to make your own, and I have to warn you, I'm pretty badass at this game."

Kamina beamed like a child, and then replied, gleefully. "There's a reason we're blood and soul brothers, Simon, you know that?"


	6. Suicidal Assumptions - Chapter 6

The clacking of a woman's high heels reverberated through the corridor of Rossiu's office. He could hear her every footstep, and was growing impatient with every piercing click they made on the tile. He waited until the clacking stopped, and then opened his office door.

The woman on the other side was startled by the sudden opening of the door. She withdrew her hand from the numberpad on the wall, and walked in.

"Good morning, Rossiu." she said in a cheery voice. "I hear you're looking for a dashing rogue and an attractive young lady?"

"Nonsense. I know that such doesn't exist." He scoffed. "Well, at least from you two."

The woman waggled her eyebrows. "If you believe such a thing doesn't exist, then why did you send your 'finest' men to come and accost me?"

Rossiu grunted. "Because you're always looking to evade the law, Ms. Celebrity Littner."

Yoko winked at Rossiu. "What's the fun in helping save the world if you can't break a few laws?"

"You've gone completely insane, you know that, Yoko?" Kittan's silhouette appeared in the door frame, and his face appeared as he walked into the room.

"Rossiu, let's make it short, I've been up all night." Kittan said, rubbing his eyes in an attempt to awaken himself.

Rossiu sighed. "If you hadn't been making 'guest appearances' at new clubs around town, maybe you'd be in better condition to meet me at 8:30, hmm?"

Kittan averted his gaze, and Yoko giggled.

"Rossiu, you need to let loose once! You're just as much as a savior of the world as we are~!"

Yoko's voice was sickening to Rossiu. To see someone that he had once thought a badass, to be reduced to nothing but today's gossip was more than enough to sicken someone.

"Alright, what's this about 'bringing someone back from the dead', Rossiu? You're the brainiac of Team Dai-Gurren, why're you asking us?" Kittan gruffly asked after taking a hearty swig from a canteen that he evidently hid in his coat pocket.

Rossiu turned and looked at the city below.

"We're all worried about Simon. He's been off the walls, as I'm sure you're aware of. However," Rossiu turned to the two standing behind his desk.

"Do you believe he could be... suicidal?"

Yoko and Kittan exchanged looks. "I-I... hadn't thought of that until now, no..."

Kittan coughed a bit, and then asked, "What makes you think that, Rossiu?"

Rossiu turned his back again. "This morning, I received a call from Simon asking about the dead. I couldn't really understand, I was too..." Rossiu blushed a bit, but was sure they couldn't see his reddening face. "Preoccupied, to put it. From what I was paying attention too, I believe he asked that if he did, was there a possibility he could see Kamina again. Of course, I told him there was no such way, and I told him to get it out of his mind. Unfortunately, I'm not quite sure if this is what he was asking, because, like I said..." Rossiu's voice trailed off.

Yoko piped up. "B-but, Simon... wouldn't be suicidal? He's told us multiple times he just needs time..."

The mood in the room had dropped considerably.

Rossiu was certain Simon wouldn't actually consider killing himself, at least he was until this morning.

"Well, we've got to look at the facts." Rossiu sat down in his desk chair and rubbed his temples.

"He's missed a month of work. With the anniversary of Kamina's death, and the period of 'mourning' extending every year, do you honestly think that it's preposterous?"

Both Yoko and Kittan shook their heads, and in unison, responded, "I... suppose not."

Yoko's eyes flashed as her phone's light shone through her pant pocket.

"Ah, it's from Nia! I have her set to the color purple! I guess this means that Simon is fine!"

"How d'you figure that?" Kittan asked, looking at Yoko as if she had escaped from a mental asylum.

Yoko was now back to her usual cheery self. "It's a girl thing, y'know?"

She grabbed the phone and held it to her ear. "Nia, how're things?" she asked.

Her smile quickly vanished and turned into a look of worry.

"Nia... Nia, hon-honey, look, calm down, Nia, calm down! St-stop crying for a second, Nia! Just expla-just explain, Nia!"

Kittan glanced at Rossiu who was still completely lost in thought. '_Hmm... odd of Rossiu to be the one who's not in reality... usually that's Aretenbourough...' _Kittan thought.

After about five minutes of Yoko talking to Nia through the phone and switching between expressions every ten seconds, Rossiu returned to reality and the call ended.

"What the hell was that about?" Kittan asked.

Yoko looked absolutely irate. "If Simon isn't suicidal, he's going to wish he was, once I'm done with him."

Yoko quickly grabbed the jack-knife on Kittan's belt and started waving it between Rossiu and Kittan. "And don't either of you DARE and try to stop me!"

Yoko sat in one of the office chairs and started taking her high-heels off.

"Y-Yoko, what's wrong? Why're you going to hurt Simon?" Kittan asked, with a look of pure terror in his eyes. Rossiu was also terrified by the sudden violent streak Yoko had shown.

"He's been sleeping with floozies the entire month he's been neglecting work, us, and Nia!"

"W-what?!" Rossiu exclaimed to the sudden revelation. Turns out he had been entirely wrong in thinking he knew everything about Simon.

"And the worst part?" Yoko said as she started walking out of the office with the large knife in hand, "She caught him doing it in their own bed."

* * *

Sorry for the late update. I'm planning to have the next chapter out by this Saturday, and then I'll continue to have a weekly update. AP courses are kicking my butt, but I'm going to kick back! This isn't abandoned, for all of you people who have PM'd me saying such.

And like I said, I hate doing these author things, so I'll only do such when they're warranted.


	7. The Red Giant's Return - Chapter 7

The look on Kamina's face was enough to tell Simon that he had already won. Simon had spent months playing Space Fighter Warrior Ninja (and his Warrior Ninja looked very similar to Gurren Lagann) so there was no way that Kamina could have dreamed at beating him. At first he considered going easy on him, but victory is so much sweeter when it's a total wipe out.

Kamina threw the controller down in frustration and moaned.

"This really is harder than it looks..."

Simon scoffed. "It's not hard, I'm just the best at this. It's an undisputed fact."

Kamina shrugged and started to laugh. "Well, as long as this isn't your day job, Simon, then I'd have to say I'm impressed!"

Simon thought that if Kamina knew the extent of his sleepless nights spent playing this game, and how he would sometimes devote entire weekends to it, he might not be proud of him then. Simon decided not to bring this fact up.

Kamina sauntered towards the console and looked at Simon's shelf, filled with hundreds of games for the system. He looked amazed that there were so many options for such a tiny devise.

"Oi, Simon, do you buy these things, or what? There must be a million different game things here!" Kamina asked, gaze not breaking from Simon's vast collection.

"Uh, some of them. To be honest, a lot of people just sort of... send the things to my office now."

Kamina turned around and cocked his eyebrow. "You get these little rectangles that hold worlds on them, for free? Why's that?" He asked, clearly impressed with the concept.

Simon flashed back to an interview about a year ago. The reporter was asking each member of Team Dai-Gurren questions about how they're rehabilitating to normal life. When the woman got to Simon, she asked him what he liked to do in his spare time. His face was red and he was nervous. The idea that thousands of people knew his name and were watching him was scary, but now he had to give a moment of a day in the life?

_"Uh... m-mostly... v-videogames, really... t-that's about i-it."_

And from that point on, it seems a dedicated fanbase sent him the latest releases whenever they would come out, without fail, to his office desk.

"Just a perk, I suppose." he replied.

However, Kamina's interest were now grabbed by his coffee maker in the kitchen.

Simon couldn't help but smile. For a man who piloted a giant robot, the idea that something as simple as a coffee maker would give him childlike wonder was amazing to him. The fact that they had been able to prosper as much as they had so shortly after the end of their oppression, was astounding to anyone. But new inventions were being invented everyday, and ideas by the second.

Simon asked Kamina if he wanted a beer and started heading for the kitchen. He turned to wait for Kamina's reply, but noticed a sharp chrome flash coming from outside. A red dot shifted onto his eye, blinding him for a split second. Out of pure instinct, he dove and tackled Kamina.

"Are we wrestling now, Simon? I like the spontaneity, but maybe next time give me a warning, eh?" Kamina murmured, with his voice barely escaping under the weight of Simon's body. Simon rolled to the side and slapped his arm onto Kamina's chest, pressing it down so he would get the message. Simon needed for Kamina to stay down. He began to slither to the window control device.

"Simon... is something wrong?" Kamina whispered. He could sense the tension in the air, between Simon and whatever unknown party.

Simon responded in a hushed tone. "I'll explain in a moment. I have to shut the windows."

He crawled a few more steps and then waved his hand in the air. As soon as he brought it down, the red dot appeared again and began searching around for his absent hand.

_'Shit. Guess that's not going to work.'_ Simon thought.

He pondered his options. Do nothing, or risk the chance of getting shot closing the windows? He sighed. He wasn't going to sit back and waiting for this mysterious assassin to leave, so he figured he might as well chance it. As if the power of God himself was coursing through Simon's inner being, he began screaming an unintelligible battle cry.

"RAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Simon wailed out as he rose from the floor. He continued to wail the battle cry as he sprinted towards the device. He arrived and saw the dot appear again, this time a mere five feet from his head. He quickly pressed the button to close the shutters, and as if he was in a maximum security prison, they slammed shut without a delay.

"Just what the hell was that?" Kamina shouted while lifting himself off the ground. Both Simon and Kamina dusted themselves off, and met gazes. The pair stood there and stared at the other for a moment before they both began to laugh. Uncontrollably. The laughter continued for a few minutes until it halted. Kamina walked over to Simon and threw his arm over his shoulder.

"Seriously, what was that?" Kamina continued.

"I-," Simon found himself hesitating. How do you explain to someone that hasn't been alive for the past few years that you're still paranoid of assassins trying to kill you, because you killed the Spiral King? After all, he wasn't exactly in the best state of mind. He was a drunkard who was depressed, and now is possibly seeing his dead best friend and playing videogames with him? And to top it off, may or may not have just broken up with the love of his life?

"-I was just kidding around. Y'know, something I like doing with my friends. Shakes things up a bit." He finally responded.

"Oh, and I realized the windows were open, so if someone walked by, they might've seen you."

Kamina nodded, accepting this as an answer that was good enough. Simon felt the wave of relief come crashing over him. However, he knew that it wasn't as simple as that. He couldn't just sit down with Kamina and continue to play videogames. Someone was possibly after him. He was almost certain he had seen a barrel of a rifle in the tree, and the red dot of a scope. The one thing that was confusing him was the person. Who'd want to kill him? He had not done anything politically in months, and other than a few bar fights, some minor property damages, and public intoxication charges, he was a relatively normal individual. As normal as a savior of mankind could get, but still.

Simon asked Kamina to pick a single player game since he didn't want to play anymore. Kamina obliged and continued searching through his library of games. Simon headed towards his room and began opening drawers and throwing everything out. He couldn't find it. He began shuffling through the contents of drawers, now strewn across his room. Still, he could not find it.

_'Goddamnit!'_ he thought, mentally berating himself for losing it. _'How hard is it to find my Core Drill? I left it in a drawer a few nights after I got home!'_

It suddenly hit him. Memories of a drunken night flooding his mind, barraging his mind with the events of a drunken mistake. He remembered, for some odd reason, he thought it was hilarious to have filled a pot with soil, and planted it. Out of all the titles Simon had been given over the years, 'genius' was certainly not one of them.

He ran into his bathroom and threw the pot on the ground. It shattered everywhere, but that was of no concern to Simon. He saw the shiny drill sitting perfectly in the middle of the lump of soil that had flown out of the pot, and grabbed it. Brushing it off, Simon put it on. He felt his body surge with energy. Wearing the Drill made him feel like he could take on the world. No, it made him take on the world.

He dashed into his living room and grinned at Kamina. "Aniki, you're alive. To celebrate this, I think we should get acquainted with an old friend who's been longing to see you!"

Kamina smirked. "Well, I suppose I am a celebrity..." he began to rise from the couch, but Simon gave him no time. He seized him by the forearm and sprinted into his garage.

"Oi, quit with the rough housing, will ya? I've had enough for one da- well, hello beautiful!"

Kamina was drooling over the sight of his long lost baby. Simon had his garage built so he could store the giant, mechanical warrior and maintain it to how he saw fit. Simon smirked at Kamina's reaction. "Want to get in?" He asked.

Before long, they were both sitting in their seats, piloting the gargantuan robot that Simon had managed to fit into his garage.

"How's it feel, Aniki?" Simon inquired through the voice intercom.

"Feels better than new, Simon!" He answered, excitement jittering through his voice.

"Well, to be honest, this is something I thought would never happen ever again, Aniki!" Simon responded.

Simon engaged the controls by putting his Drill Core in. The spiral spun green, and the roof of his garage opened up along with the mechanism's activation. The thrusters engaged, and the giant flew up into the air and struck a heroic pose. Suddenly, a loud bang occurred, a flash of orange fire, and within seconds, a bullet pierced the beast.

"Hey! Just what the hell do you think you're doing?" Kamina shouted. "I guess I'll have to do this now, then! I'll be ignoring that, but only for a second!"

"From the blood of brothers, two souls united! We will join together, once again, to fight all of those that stand in our way! Nothing will stop us from achieving our ultimate goal! Resurrected once again, the mighty red demon that strikes fear in the hearts of the evil, and gives hope to the souls of the oppressed! Not even death can stop us, for we will come back and continue fighting! GURREN LAGANN! Just who the hell do you think we are?

Simon was beaming. This, was how it should've been, and how it should always be. Two brothers, fighting whatever stands in their way.

"Now this is what you get for being a coward and trying to kill me in my own HOME!" Simon shouted as Gurren Lagann's fists thrust towards the unknown assailant hiding in his tree.

Nobody would ever be so bold as to try killing him again.


End file.
